Terrorism Act 2006 (Disapplication of Section 25) Order 2007

My Lords, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, made a powerful speech this evening, as he has done on previous similar occasions, in the cause of civil liberty. He certainly made a justifiable criticism of Ken Jones for going so far as to rashly say that one ought to be able to detain someone for as long as it takes—a most unwise statement. It was no doubt not as carefully judged as the statements of the noble and learned Lord typically are, or those of the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, who has spoken up in favour of individual liberty—again, in a powerful way. However, I was more impressed by the speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Park of Monmouth, who emphasised that detention of 28 days is subject to repeated and regular consideration by judges of appropriate rank, depending on how long the detention has been. That is a most important safeguard, and a most important part of the balance between civil individual liberty on the one hand and the security of the general public on the other. I am bound to say to the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, that his mentions of countries overseas—the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, also mentioned some—were not particularly impressive to me. Britain happens to be, for a number of reasons that it would be tiresome for me to go into now, a centre of terrorist activity in a way which many other countries—certainly Canada, which was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia—are not. Good luck to them! But we in this country must give special consideration to the balance referred to by all speakers. Of course the 28-day period is substantial, bearing in mind the long period of individual liberty, rule of law and democracy that we have enjoyed in this country. But terrorism is a reality, and the recent examples, trials and knowledge we have from the intelligence services that other trials and incidents may unfortunately take place are sufficient to suggest that the Government have, as the noble Baroness, Lady Park, pointed out, a strong case for asking for this order today.